瑜伽師地論 思所成地 · 體義伽他 · 第六段「類」

The sixth section of the Body-Meaning Verses, three verses (the first verse asks five questions; the latter two answer with nine virtues). It asks, "Who encourages the beings of the superior classes, and who discloses the path of departure?"

In one line: The "Classes" section sets up its tenet as "only the Buddha is the true encourager-and-leader (by the Dharma, by the right, by regulation, and by guidance)," and answers with a ladder of the nine virtues of Buddhahood (discipline → wisdom → self-perfuming → concentration → mindfulness → uprightness → cutting off sorrow → right mindfulness → liberation of mind from the two obstructions); the four superior classes, cultivating the three trainings, all realize the noble eightfold path and nirvāṇa.

Three Points of the Eye

1. Only the Buddha encourages and leads the four superior classes. The superior classes = the four superior and eminent castes (brahmins, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, śūdras). To teach them "by the Dharma, by the right, by regulation, and by guidance" = "encouraging" (glossed by the three masters Jing / Tai / Kuiji). Only the Buddha can encourage and lead and proclaim the noble eightfold path, revealing himself as the true encourager-and-leader and true speaker.
2. The nine virtues of Buddhahood = one ladder. Completeness in discipline (forsaking the household, taking up the disciplines) → completeness in wisdom (contemplating the world's hardship) → self-perfuming (three great eons of the six perfections, inclining toward departure without a teacher) → completeness in concentration (realizing neither-perception-nor-non-perception) → completeness in mindfulness (the four foundations of mindfulness, the factors of awakening) → uprightness (the against-the-stream noble eightfold path, stream-entry) → cutting off sorrow and burning (non-returner, cutting off the five lower fetters, ill-will resembling sorrow and greed resembling burning) → right mindfulness (cutting off the higher fetters) → liberation of mind = the good liberation from the two obstructions, afflictive and cognitive → becoming the Tathāgata. The loosing of both obstructions = the Buddha's difference from the two vehicles.
3. Universally extended to the four castes. Whoever of the four superior classes practices rightly within the noble teaching, and, to realize the noble eightfold path, cultivates diligently within the three trainings, surely realizes the noble eightfold path and nirvāṇa, and does not fear birth, old age, sickness, and death. The Buddha = the unsurpassed great teacher of gods and humans.

Appended · Pointers

Liberation of mind from the two obstructions → the two obstructions in the Cheng Weishi Lun; the self-perfuming of the six perfections → the Bodhisattva Stage (fasc. 35+); the four superior classes and the three trainings → the Intent-Sense Verses (11-02). For the doctrinal unfolding, see the Exposition.

The Verses (Rendered · Three Verses)

〔Question:〕 "Who is able to encourage and lead the beings of the superior classes 〔toward the good〕, and to disclose the path of departure? On what 〔teacher〕 must one abide, and what 〔dharma〕 must one learn, so as not to fear the death of the world to come?" 〔Answer:〕 "The one who, by discipline and by wisdom, perfumes and cultivates himself; who is complete in concentration, mindfulness, and uprightness; who has cut off all sorrows and burnings, and who has right mindfulness and liberation of mind — he is able to encourage and lead the beings of the superior classes and to disclose the path of departure; abide in this 〔teacher〕, learn in this 〔dharma〕, and one will not fear the death of the world to come."

The Prose Exposition (Rendered)

The "superior classes" spoken of in this verse are the four superior and eminent classes of birth: first, the brahmins; second, the kṣatriyas; third, the vaiśyas; fourth, the śūdras. To teach and transform the beings of the superior classes "by the Dharma, by the right, by regulation, and by guidance" is what is named "encouraging." What is shown here is this: only the Buddha, the World-Honored One, is able to teach and transform the beings of the superior classes by the Dharma, by the right, by regulation, and by guidance — and by this cause the World-Honored One reveals of himself, "I alone am the true encourager and leader," and therefore he says to that deity that he is "complete in discipline, complete in wisdom, and perfumes and cultivates himself." Again, only the World-Honored One is able to proclaim, for the beings of the four superior and eminent classes, the noble eightfold path that departs from all the sufferings of the multitude; and here too the World-Honored One reveals of himself that he is the true speaker.

〔The nine virtues are now explained:〕 What is completeness in discipline? When the Buddha, the World-Honored One, was formerly a bodhisattva, he cast away the finest and subtlest desires, forsook the household life, and took up and upheld all the disciplines of body and speech. What is completeness in wisdom? It is that, while abiding in that upholding of the disciplines of body and speech, he gave rise to such an aspect — inwardly and rightly reflecting, deeply and thoroughly weighing, examining with careful precision: "This world now suffers much hardship, namely birth and old age" (as the scripture explains at length). What is perfuming and cultivating oneself? Over countless remaining lifetimes in the past, across three great incalculable eons (asaṃkhyeya), he practiced and well practiced the six perfections; and by that cause, his mind now, without a teacher and of itself, inclines toward departure, and he is able, by subtle and marvelous knowledge, to enter into realization of the formations arisen from the manifold conditions. What is completeness in concentration? It means being able, and so on, to become free of the desire for the sphere of nothing-whatever, and to realize the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. What is completeness in mindfulness? It means that, relying on the superior concentration thus attained, in order to cut off the afflictions to be cut off by the path of seeing, he cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness; and taking the foundations of mindfulness thus cultivated as his leading head, he goes on to cultivate the thirty-seven factors of awakening. What is uprightness? It means that he gives rise to the upright, noble eightfold path that "flows against the stream," able to cut off all the afflictions to be cut off by the path of seeing, and upon the against-the-stream path he attains "stream-entry-and-following." What is the everlasting cutting-off of all sorrow, grief, and burning? It means that, from the direct realization of the truths, he together attains the state of a "non-returner," and is further able to cut off forever the five lower fetters; ill-will accords, as it were, with sorrow and grief, and greed accords, as it were, with burning, and of such as these he has already cut off all forever. What is right mindfulness? It means that, in order to cut off forever the higher fetters, he again cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness, and goes on to cultivate the thirty-seven factors of awakening. What is liberation of mind? It means that, because he has already cut off forever the higher fetters, his mind is well liberated from the two kinds of obstruction — the afflictive obstruction and the cognitive obstruction; and because his mind is thus well liberated, he attains the state of "the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly and Fully Awakened" (explained at length as in the scripture).

By this, then, he is able to encourage and lead the beings of the superior classes and to disclose the path of departure. As for those of the four superior classes — whoever, of any one of them, delights within this noble teaching in right conduct, and, wishing to realize the noble eightfold path, diligently cultivates and learns within the three trainings — he will surely be able to realize the noble eightfold path and the fruit of nirvāṇa; and because he realizes that, he does not fear the birth, old age, sickness, and death to come.

The Summary Sense (Rendered)

Next comes a brief clarification of the sense stated above: it briefly shows that only the Buddha, the World-Honored One, is able to make the four classes 〔of beings〕 swiftly attain purity — that they, if they can rightly practice herein, do not do so in vain 〔to no purpose〕; it further shows that the Tathāgata's noble teaching is the well-spoken true Dharma and Vinaya; and it further shows that the Buddha is the unsurpassed great teacher of gods and humans. Know that this is the summary sense herein.

The sixth section, three verses, one question and one answer. The hard spots are all explained with words the treatise itself already holds.

First, One Question: Who Can Truly "Encourage and Lead" Beings Out of Birth-and-Death?

The questioner asks five things in a single breath: who can encourage and lead the beings of the superior classes toward the good, who can disclose the path of departure, on what teacher one should rely, what dharma one should learn, and how one may come not to fear the death of the world to come. The treatise first glosses "superior classes" — namely the four superior and eminent classes of birth (brahmins, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, śūdras, that is, the four castes of Indian society). And the word "encourage" the treatise glosses heavily: one must teach "by the Dharma, by the right, by regulation, and by guidance" for it to count as "encouraging." The ancient masters each have their fine reading of these four phrases (the readings of Master Jing, Master Tai, and Master Kuiji are set out side by side): Master Tai says that "encourage" carries four senses — by the teaching-Dharma, by declaring right cause-and-fruit, by the restraint of the precepts, and by the guidance of the three vehicles. The treatise's conclusion is flat and unbending: only the Buddha, the World-Honored One, is able to encourage by the Dharma, by the right, by regulation, and by guidance, and is able to proclaim the noble eightfold path that departs from the sufferings of the multitude; therefore the Buddha reveals of himself, "I alone am the true encourager-and-leader, the true speaker."

The Answer Lies Hidden in the "Nine Virtues": Rung by Rung, from Forsaking the Household to Buddhahood

Five asked, nine answered. On the strength of what is the Buddha qualified to encourage and lead? The treatise takes the Buddha's "qualification" apart into nine virtues, and these nine virtues, laid out in order, are precisely a ladder from the ordinary being to the Buddha:

1. Completeness in discipline — as a bodhisattva he cast away the subtle desires, forsook the household, and took up the disciplines of body and speech (the first step is keeping the precepts);
2. Completeness in wisdom — within those disciplines he inwardly and rightly reflected, contemplating that "the world suffers much hardship, birth and old age" (giving rise to the wisdom of world-weariness);
3. Perfuming and cultivating oneself — over three great incalculable eons (asaṃkhyeya) in the past he cultivated the six perfections, cultivating until "without a teacher his mind of itself inclines toward departure," and by subtle and marvelous knowledge entered into realization of conditioned arising (the long nurture of the bodhisattva path);
4. Completeness in concentration — free of the desire for the sphere of nothing-whatever, he realized the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception (reaching the summit of mundane concentration);
5. Completeness in mindfulness — relying on the superior concentration he cultivated the four foundations of mindfulness, on up to the thirty-seven factors of awakening (turning toward the supramundane);
6. Uprightness — he gave rise to the "against-the-stream" noble eightfold path, cut off the delusions-of-view, and attained "stream-entry" (the path of seeing);
7. Cutting off sorrow and burning — by the direct realization of the truths he became a "non-returner," cutting off the five lower fetters (ill-will resembling sorrow, greed resembling burning, both cut off);
8. Right mindfulness — again cultivating the foundations of mindfulness and factors of awakening, he cut off the higher fetters;
9. Liberation of mind — the higher fetters exhausted, his mind is well liberated from the "afflictive obstruction and cognitive obstruction," the two obstructions — becoming the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly and Fully Awakened.

The most noteworthy is the ninth virtue: the Buddha's "liberation of mind" is not a liberation from the afflictive obstruction alone, but a liberation from the "two obstructions" together — and this is exactly the dividing line between the Buddha and the arhats of the two vehicles (the arhat cuts off the afflictive obstruction; the Buddha cuts off the cognitive obstruction as well). The nine virtues bear one another up rung by rung, from the first step of keeping precepts to the loosing of both obstructions; and this is the whole answer to "who is qualified to encourage and lead": only one who has himself walked the whole road through, and has loosed even the cognitive obstruction, is fit to lead others.

The Promise to the Four Castes

This section also has a line that is very leveling: no matter which of the four castes you belong to, so long as you "delight within the noble teaching in right conduct, and, in order to realize the noble eightfold path, diligently cultivate within the three trainings," you will "surely realize the noble eightfold path and the fruit of nirvāṇa, and not fear the birth, old age, sickness, and death to come." The one who encourages and leads is the Buddha alone, yet those who receive that encouragement and leading run through all four castes — the Buddha is "the unsurpassed great teacher of gods and humans," and the door opens to all people.

The Purport of This Section

The "Classes" section, with the single question "who can encourage and lead," sets up the tenet that "only the Buddha is the true encourager-and-leader," and then, with the nine virtues (discipline → wisdom → self-perfuming → concentration → mindfulness → uprightness → cutting off sorrow → right mindfulness → liberation of mind from the two obstructions), lays out a ladder to Buddhahood; it closes with the promise, universally extended, that "the four castes, cultivating the three trainings, all realize nirvāṇa." Liberation of mind = the loosing of both obstructions — this is the section's crucial single stroke marking the difference between the Buddha's fruit and that of the two vehicles.

Carrying Forward

Liberation of mind = the good liberation from the two obstructions, afflictive and cognitive → the chapter on the two obstructions in the Cheng Weishi Lun; the self-perfuming among the nine virtues (the six perfections, the factors of awakening) → the Bodhisattva Stage (fasc. 35+); the four superior classes cultivating the three trainings → the noble eightfold path and nirvāṇa → the three trainings of the Intent-Sense Verses (11-02).